সোমবার, ২৩ এপ্রিল, ২০১২

Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen Deedat: the icon of the Muslim world

Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen Deedat: the icon of the Muslim world

Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen
Deedat was the most powerful Muslim scholar, writer, orator, preacher
with more than five decades of experience in his time. Astoundingly, he
had vast knowledge of Christianity, then Islam and for this, any
Christian missionary thinks hundreds times before debating with him. He
employed his God gifted knowledge properly to prove the superiority of
Islam among all religion.

He was born on July 01,
1918 in Surat district (Tadkeshwar town) of Gujarat, India. His father,
who was a tailor, had immigrated to South Africa shortly after the
birth of Deedat. For this he had no remembrance of his father until
1926. In 1927, he went to Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa to meet with his
parents as nine years old boy. Unfortunately, his mother died after a
few months of his departure in the same year.

Ahmed was a very
brilliant student and showed his outstanding performance in school by
overcoming different types of obstacles as language barrier in foreign
surrounding. But unhappily, after completing standard six, he had to
quit school due to financial insolvency and took his first job in
retailing at the age of 16.

The life of Deedat was
changed in 1936, while he was a salesman at a Muslim owned furniture
store near a Christian seminary on the Natal South Coast. The trainee
Christian missionaries were trying to convert Muslim peoples by
spreading malicious words against Islam and the Holy Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him. This ceaseless malevolence of missionaries instills a
willful flare of aspiration within the boy to offset their phony
propaganda.

As a result , sheikh
Deedat read a book named Izharul Haq- The Truth revealed, written by
Rahmatullah Kairanawi which contains different techniques to prevent the
false propaganda against Islam and Muslim and enormous success of the
efforts of Muslims against Christian missionary harassment during the
British subjugation and rule of India.

He was intensely
influenced by the ideas of this book, specially the idea of holding
debate and dialogue with non-Muslim priests and missionaries. It was
proved as true when he purchasehd of his first Bible and studied it
critically and took classes on Bible in Islamic study classes held by a
local Muslim converted named Mr.Fairfax.

Furthermore, Deedat
became a confidential preacher of Islam and primarily conducted Bible
classes, lectures and debates in South Africa, after that around the
world over for four decades. In 1942, he delivered his first lecture
entitled “Muhammad: Messenger of Peace” at Durban and Jummah mosque at
Durban became the center of the Dawah.

He founded the largest
Islamic Dawah Organization in the world, the Islamic Propagation Center
International (IPCI) with his two friends Goolam Hoosein Vanker and
Tahir Rasul (1957) and the first Islamic Seminary in Southern Africa to
train propagators at Assalaam educational Institute, Braemar in the
south of Natal province (1958). For the first time, Deedat conducted his
classes, Lectures, and debates on Biblical theology, comparative
religion outside of South Africa by the early of 1980s.

He delivered thousands
of lectures all over the world which are available all over the world in
the various languages in Video and DVD format. His dialogue with the
heads of the Protestant world in America and the late Pope John Paul is
also available. He visited many countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
United Kingdom, and Pakistan, united state of America, Canada, and
Australia. Sweden and Denmark

In 1986, he was awarded
the prestigious King Faisal Award for his sterling services to Islam in
the field of Propagation. Nelson Mandela, the former president of South
Africa, congratulating Deedat for his international icon status in the
Muslim World.

He has published more
than 20 books and distributed millions of copies of free literature and
pamphlets around the world. Some of his books are: The Choice – Between
Islam and Christianity – Volume I, The Choice – Between Islam and
Christianity – Volume II, Is the Bible God’s Word? Al Qur’an the Miracle
of Miracles, What is His Name? Christ in Islam, What was the sign of
Jonah? What the Bible says about Muhammad (pbuh)? Resurrection or
Resuscitation? Arabs and Israel – Conflict or Conciliation? Crucifixion
or Cruci-Fiction, Muhammad: The Natural Successor to Christ, Muhammad
The Greatest, Al-Qur’an: the Ultimate Miracle. Many of his publications
have been translated into the many different languages of the world such
as Russian, Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, French, Amharic, Chinese, Japanese,
Mayalam, Indonesian, Zulu, Afrikaans, Dutch, and Norwegian amongst
others.

On May 03, 1996 Sheikh
Ahmed Deedat suffered from a serious stroke and remained paralyzed and
bedridden for 9 years in his home Verulam. On 8th August, 2005 he passed
away at the age of 87 and buried at the verulam cemetery in the
province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Deedat was looked after by his
wife Hawa Deedat, she passed away on August 28th 2006 at the age of 85
at Deedat’s home. May Allah (swt) bless his soul with Jannatul Firdous
for his cordial efforts to preach Islam. To know more about him you can
visit: www.ahmed-deedat.net.